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Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Lemon Crinkle Cookies are chewy, soft, and bursting with hints of lemon in every bite!

This original post was from March 2, 2011!! Whoa.

Talk about blast from the past.

ANYWAYS, I thought since this is definitely one of my most popular recipes on my entire blog, I’d update the photos! So, below is the original recipe, just with additional newer pictures that I snapped last week.

As mentioned below, I made these cookies for a recipe contest and won! They are approved by all and are relatively easy to throw together. You do have to take a minute or two to roll the cookie dough in some powdered sugar, but besides that, this recipe is made for the novice chef.

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A lot of commenters said that they’d prefer more lemon flavor, so feel free to add in more zest. Also, a lot of you have mentioned to me that these cookies don’t spread. This is because there is too much flour in your cookie dough! Fluff up your flour, spoon it into your measuring cup and then level the top. That is the correct way to measure flour and how I measured it for this recipe.

Besides those two things, you should be good to go!

Enjoy!!

xoxo

-Lauren

****Original Post Published March 2, 2011****

I went to the gym yesterday evening. Anyone else ever done that before? Worst decision EVER. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, then you know I usually go in the mornings. Well, we had some snow fall and apparently everything in this little town shuts down because no one knows how to plow. {It’s kind of a pet peeve of mine–cities that are clueless when it comes to snow removal. It started in Idaho and just snowballed from there. Hahaha…..get it? Snowballed? I’m so witty.} Anyways, I couldn’t get to the gym in the morning, so I went to the gym last night. And then I got home and was starving. Like when you’re 4 months pregnant and you just got your appetite back starving. And so I ate cookies. And then I ate some more cookies. And then took some vitamins for good measure. And some water. And then everything was right in the world.

Oh, and just to clear things up, I’m not 4 months pregnant. I’m not pregnant at all. But I do enjoy most food like I should be pregnant. Namely, these cookies.

I think we all can agree that I am a lemon freak. I love love love lemon ridiculously. It’s in the genes. My Mom is the same way. {I also inherited a crazy addiction to mushrooms and a specific way to fold towels and bed sheets. But that’s another story.} Lemon and I are buddies, especially when it comes to desserts– my thighs can prove it. I recently made a Lemon Cream Pie–to die for. Blueberry Lemon Coffee Cake Muffins? Oh mama. But these cookies……ohmygoodgravy–they caught me at a moment of weakness and I ate them up. They are soft, but still slightly crunchy, tart, but still really sweet and basically just the essence of what a good cookie should be. Oh, and fresh out of the oven they tasted like lemon bars. Random but so delicious. If I owned a bake shop, I would make and sell these in a heart beat. Seriously.Good.Cookies. Whip up a batch right now. Call in sick to work and make them. I even bet you have all the ingredients too. Easy to make, simple ingredients, done in 30 minutes and they just walk right into your mouth! Pretty incredible.

Instructions

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Arghhh, going to the gym late is awful for so many reasons.
These lemony cookies look wonderful. We are both on the same page – just whipped up a few batches over here too. Think it might be one of my favorites ever 🙂

Lauren, I tried the Lemon Crinkle cookies and they turned out tasty. I did not think I was going to add the vanilla, for I thought it would take away from the lemonie taste, but it worked out very well. I also had not came across a recipe that put powder sugar on before cooking, so I tried a few cookies without and the favorites were with the powdered sugar. I think my husband ate a dozen even before the 2nd batch came out of the over :).. Thanks for sharing

Oh my gosh. I don’t usually leave comments but, oh my gosh, I stumbled across your site yesterday and found this recipe, made them when I got home from work and WOW! I made them small – 40 cookies – brought 30 of them to work and it’s just past 9:30 am and they are almost gone!! And there are only 8 people here today, and I haven’t had any….

I used all the zest off of one lemon which was more than 1 teaspoon and about 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. I will definitely add these to my list of favorite recipes.

I just tried these cookies and although they were still very good they dis not have that yellow look to them and they were a lot smaller than your picture. Maybe I messed something up but I followed to a t. They did not make too many either. What happened???

I baked a double batch of these extraordinary cookies tonight and tho I am not a cookie freak…..these could make me a cookie freak!! Major cudos for the recipe and congrats on the award for them,,,,it:s well deserved. My daughter in law will really love doing these little beauties as she is the cookie queen in our family.
Thanks for sharing……

So I just made these tonight, and they didn’t turn out quite right. 🙁 Do you use real butter? I always use margarine, Blue Bonnet to be exact, and did with these as well. The dough was really soft and even after freezing until able to make a ball and roll in the sugar, they just flattened out and all connected together. They also baked all the way through, so there was no “mock lemon bar experience”. Again… 🙁 the butter/margarine thing is the only thing I can think of that might have caused this, but I wanted to ask first.
On the bright side, they were still really good (aka I still ate them to the point of a tummy ache), and I couldn’t stay out of the dough!

I’ve finally gotten the chance to make them again with real butter, and that was definitely the problem! They came out perfect and are so good! …and the dough is… Well, after making the last cookie and scraping the remaining dough in my scooper, I realized that the exact amount I had already eaten would have made it a full cookie’s worth of dough. I couldn’t have a mini cookie, nor could I waste it, so… Admittedly I ate a whole cookie in the form of dough. I don’t regret it 🙂

Hi, I made these cookies and they did not flatten out like the picture shows they still look like balls. 🙂 Did I do something wrong. I followed the recipe exactly as printed. Did I need to flatten before baking and should I shake off excess powdered sugar? The balls taste good just very doughy.

I suggest you check your oven temperature with an oven thermometer. My SIL always asks for my cookie recipes and swears she does everything correctly, yet EVERY SINGLE BATCH comes out looking almost like raw dough, still in the shape they were when she dropped them on the sheet, no matter what kind of cookie she tries. After a few years of this, I came across someone with similar woes and she found out her oven was about 20 degrees (F) off (too cool). I told my SIL and when she checked hers it was 45 (FORTY FIVE!!!!) degrees (F) too cool. This means that the chemistry of the butters, sugars and other ingredients are not reaching critical temperatures to make them react correctly. Now her cookies are beautiful!!

I came across these on Pinterest, I’ve made Chocolate Crinkle Cookies before, but not lemon, so I tried them. So good! I’m so happy to have an easy non-chocolate cookie to add to my repertoire! Thanks for posting!
Also, I will also be posting this recipe on my blog. Of course with a link here!

I just baked these cookies and they are so very delicious! They turned out perfectly. I am taking them to a reception and know they will be gone in a flash. This is a recipe I will make over and over. Thank you, Lauren!